Tuning the surface Fermi level on p-type gallium nitride nanowires for efficient overall water splitting

被引:294
作者
Kibria, M. G. [1 ]
Zhao, S. [1 ]
Chowdhury, F. A. [1 ]
Wang, Q. [1 ]
Nguyen, H. P. T. [1 ]
Trudeau, M. L. [2 ]
Guo, H. [3 ]
Mi, Z. [1 ]
机构
[1] McGill Univ, Dept Elect & Comp Engn, Montreal, PQ H3A 0E9, Canada
[2] Hydro Quebec, IREQ, Sci Mat, Varennes, PQ J3X 1S1, Canada
[3] McGill Univ, Ctr Phys Mat, Dept Phys, Montreal, PQ H3A 2T8, Canada
来源
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 2014年 / 5卷
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
SEMICONDUCTOR NANOWIRES; HYDROGEN-PRODUCTION; TIO2; ARRAYS;
D O I
10.1038/ncomms4825
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Solar water splitting is one of the key steps in artificial photosynthesis for future carbonneutral, storable and sustainable source of energy. Here we show that one of the major obstacles for achieving efficient and stable overall water splitting over the emerging nanostructured photocatalyst is directly related to the uncontrolled surface charge properties. By tuning the Fermi level on the nonpolar surfaces of gallium nitride nanowire arrays, we demonstrate that the quantum efficiency can be enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude. The internal quantum efficiency and activity on p-type gallium nitride nanowires can reach similar to 51% and similar to 4.0 mol hydrogen h(-1) g(-1), respectively. The nanowires remain virtually unchanged after over 50,000 mu mol gas (hydrogen and oxygen) is produced, which is more than 10,000 times the amount of photocatalyst itself (similar to 4.6 mmol). The essential role of Fermi-level tuning in balancing redox reactions and in enhancing the efficiency and stability is also elucidated.
引用
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页数:6
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